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• Most Topular Stories

• The content marketing explosion [infographic]

  Holy Kaw!

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 am

  Via Blue Glass Interactive. Marketing infographics. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• The 5 things that will derail your marketing in 2012

  Drew's Marketing Minute

  Drew McLellan

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:37 am

  I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but the truth is — most organizations’ marketing efforts stink.  And they stink for reasons well within the marketing department’s control. If you’re worried that your own efforts might fall short — beware of these five danger zones that can derail you in a blink! Inconsistency:  Does your monthly newsletter go out 5 times a year?  Does your copy tone/style fluctuate between somber and casual?  Are your weekly sales calls happening every week? Inconsistency not only waters down your results but it also…

• Super Bowl Ads: “Second Payoff” Pays Off

  Neuromarketing

  Roger Dooley

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:11 am

  The Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year for football fans, and just about as important for neuromarketing companies. The first results of neuromarketing studies from the big game are trickling out, and Innerscope Research observed a strategy employed by multiple advertisers: a “second payoff” at the end of the ad, after the [...]

• Playbooks and visual explanations

  Church of the Customer Blog

  Ben McConnell

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:30 am

  By the time the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took the field Sunday for their Super Bowl matchup, the players on both teams had read, re-read and rehearsed their respective game playbooks dozens, if not hundreds of times. They'd studied each play via multiple diagrams and photographs, stats and descriptions of assignments for every player on the field.  A playbook is an apt metaphor for any business team that needs concise, how-to plans to deal with the complexity of systems, processes and moving variables, especially with social business. Whether it's for one of the world's…

• Are You Learning as Fast as the World Is Changing?

  Bill Taylor on HarvardBusiness.org

  Bill Taylor

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:00 am

  Tom Kelly, general manager of IDEO, the world-renowned design firm, likes to quote French novelist Marcel Proust, who famously said, "The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes." What goes for novelists goes for leaders searching to craft a novel strategy for their company, a new product for their customers, or a better way to organize their employees. In a world that never stops changing, great leaders never stop learning. Today, the challenge for leaders at every level is no longer just to out-hustle, out-muscle, and out-maneuver the competition.

• 

  Holy Kaw!

• The content marketing explosion [infographic]

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 am

  Via Blue Glass Interactive. Marketing infographics. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• 8 historical figures who ate disgusting things

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:26 pm

  Before you read this article, you may have thought your dog had the grossest eating habits ever. But Fido's penchant for poo is nothing compared to some of these sickos highlighted in Cracked. For example, Victorian scientist William Buckland: He didn't just stop at the meat of animals, either. While on a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, a strange mark was found on the floor. A debate broke out as to what the stain could possibly be, at which point Buckland got on his hands and knees, licked the stain and confidently announced it to be bat piss. But the craziest thing Buckland ever did, at…

• 5 explanations of why teenagers act the way the do

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:22 pm

  Understanding the teenage mind could be a life's work. For those of you who don't have that kind of time, however, Mental Floss gives five things that could explain the mind of the teenager. For example, parents, have you ever wondered if your teenager is somehow getting dumber? Parents of teens often wonder what happened to the bright child they used to have. How can someone go from getting A’s to getting C’s when they seem to be doing the same amount of work? Once again, changes in the brain are to blame. While the merits of IQ tests are debatable, scientists used to think IQ…

• Surviving the loss of a star employee

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:16 pm

  Some groups have stellar members who carry the team. That's all well and good until that member leaves. Then what? This Smartblog video will help you answer that question: Full story at Smartblog on Leadership. Top news for leaders. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Disneyland circa 1957 [video]

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:14 pm

  This video was shot in 1957, less than two years after Disneyland had opened. The footage is newly restored and ready to take you to the happiest place on earth as it was in its early days.  Full story at Mental Floss. All the top Internet videos in one place. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• 

  Drew's Marketing Minute

• The 5 things that will derail your marketing in 2012

  Drew McLellan

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:37 am

  I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but the truth is — most organizations’ marketing efforts stink.  And they stink for reasons well within the marketing department’s control. If you’re worried that your own efforts might fall short — beware of these five danger zones that can derail you in a blink! Inconsistency:  Does your monthly newsletter go out 5 times a year?  Does your copy tone/style fluctuate between somber and casual?  Are your weekly sales calls happening every week? Inconsistency not only waters down your results but it also…

• Crisis communications – don’t wait to create a plan

  Drew McLellan

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 am

  Does your organization have a crisis communications plan that you could actually put into action at this very moment? All of the hubub surrounding the Susan G. Komen decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood and then their reversal of that decision following a 72+ hour firestorm of public outrage should have scared the bejesus out of you. If an organization as large, powerful and well respected as Komen can get into that much hot water — and is that ill-prepared to handle it then what in the world would happen to you if there was an accident on your job site, if your CFO embezzled…

• Don’t add frill until your core is rock solid

  Drew McLellan

  2 Feb 2012 | 6:15 am

  A couple times a month a cleaning company comes into our house and does a deep clean. Every time I walk into the house after they’ve cleaned… the toilet paper rolls and tissues sticking out of the boxes are folded in some sort of origami art.  Sometimes, they leave a truffle on the kitchen counter. I get what they’re trying to do.  And it’s a lovely little extra.  Unfortunately, I also find things like: Every waste basket in the wrong spot (they’ve been cleaning the house for over a year) The back door unlocked or a window left open A few lights left on…

• What you don’t know about your sales funnel

  Drew McLellan

  30 Jan 2012 | 5:56 am

  We all think and talk about our sales funnel a lot.  We’re always saying things like: We need to keep it full. We need to stay active with the prospects that have been in it for awhile. On average, it takes a prospect X months to move through it. And so on…. But consider the statistic to the right.  60% of your sales efforts are what happens before you have actively put someone into the funnel.  In other words — it’s not you who is doing the selling. Who is? Your existing customers The customer who left and is working with your competitors Your vendors Your website…

• What’s your purple goldfish?

  Drew McLellan

  11 Jan 2012 | 11:30 am

  Get your free copy of Stan Phelp’s book! A few years ago, I met Stan Phelps, another marketing guy, online (I think he commented on my blog and we started chatting via email) and before I knew it — we were friends.  He was just dipping his toe into the blogging waters and I tried to be helpful along the way. Fast forward to today, January 11, 2012. Stan’s first book, What’s Your Purple Goldfish*, is being released today.  I’ve read it and know you’re going to love it.  Really love it. I’m also very humbled to say that Stan asked me to write the…

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  Neuromarketing

• Super Bowl Ads: “Second Payoff” Pays Off

  Roger Dooley

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:11 am

  The Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year for football fans, and just about as important for neuromarketing companies. The first results of neuromarketing studies from the big game are trickling out, and Innerscope Research observed a strategy employed by multiple advertisers: a “second payoff” at the end of the ad, after the [...]

• Neuromarketing Fun: Add Your Caption

  Roger Dooley

  7 Feb 2012 | 5:32 am

  Want to win a signed copy of my new book, Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing? I thought we could have a little fun while we’re waiting for the results of the Super Bowl neuromarketing studies to roll in. Read on… Neuromarketing scares some people, even though the techniques used by [...]

• NeuroBowl: Neuromarketing and Super Bowl 2012

  Roger Dooley

  3 Feb 2012 | 5:51 am

  The Super Bowl may be the biggest sports event of the year and the biggest advertising event of the year, but it’s also the biggest event of the year for neuromarketing companies. With $3 million being spent on every 30 second spot, you can be sure that lots of advertisers rang up their favorite neuromarketing [...]

• Social Personalization and the Doppelganger Effect

  Roger Dooley

  1 Feb 2012 | 5:18 am

  Are you overlooking a way to personalize your ads that goes far beyond the usual “Dear Roger” salutation? In my recent article, Put Your Customer in the Ad, I mentioned that LinkedIn was using profile pictures for targeted ads. Since then, I’ve been able to capture a couple of examples. The first one surprised me [...]

• Time Warner Opens NYC Neuromarketing Lab

  Roger Dooley

  26 Jan 2012 | 5:42 am

  Time Warner Inc. is opening their new “Medialab” at its New York City headquarters. The media giant expects to “generate valuable insights into consumer behavior, evolving media habits and industry trends across all of Time Warner’s businesses, brands and advertising partners.” The lab sounds like one of the more diverse facilities dedicated to this kind [...]

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  Church of the Customer Blog

• Playbooks and visual explanations

  Ben McConnell

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:30 am

  By the time the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took the field Sunday for their Super Bowl matchup, the players on both teams had read, re-read and rehearsed their respective game playbooks dozens, if not hundreds of times. They'd studied each play via multiple diagrams and photographs, stats and descriptions of assignments for every player on the field.  A playbook is an apt metaphor for any business team that needs concise, how-to plans to deal with the complexity of systems, processes and moving variables, especially with social business. Whether it's for one of the world's…

• People trust people

  Jackie Huba

  1 Feb 2012 | 12:27 pm

  [Click on chart to see larger version.] The latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer study just came out showing CEO's in the dog house when it comes to being trusted. Who do people trust? Academic and tech experts, sure. But the biggest movers in the study are "a person just like me" and "regular employee."  Look at your 2012 marketing plan. Are you providing ways for your customers to get together in-person and online to encourage word of mouth?  Are you showcasing your best employees in social media, at conferences, and at private events with customers? Source: 2012 Edelman…

• FedEx's apology: expertly delivered

  Jackie Huba

  21 Dec 2011 | 8:29 pm

  We've seen this before: 1) company makes an egregious service mistake and is outed by a customer via a YouTube video, 2) video goes viral, 3) mainstream media picks up the story and amplifies it, 4) PR nightmare begins. This week's culprit is FedEx. A California FedEx driver is caught on a security-camera video flinging a package containing a computer monitor over the fence of a gated Southern California house. At no time does the driver attempt to ring the bell for delivery. Just a toss over the fence, and he jumps back into his truck. In two days, the video has over three million views. …

• The simplest definition of word of mouth marketing

  Jackie Huba

  28 Nov 2011 | 12:38 pm

  Nice video from WOMMA on the basics of word of mouth marketing. Tweet

• 14 new statistics about word of mouth marketing

  Jackie Huba

  17 Oct 2011 | 11:45 am

  The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) has a neat infographic detailing the latest stats about word or mouth marketing, online and offline.  Source: WOMMA Note: the WOMMA Summit is coming up November 16-18 in Las Vegas. It's a great conference to learn the latest WOM marketing techniques from leading brands and agencies.     Tweet

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  Bill Taylor on HarvardBusiness.org

• Are You Learning as Fast as the World Is Changing?

  Bill Taylor

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:00 am

  Tom Kelly, general manager of IDEO, the world-renowned design firm, likes to quote French novelist Marcel Proust, who famously said, "The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes." What goes for novelists goes for leaders searching to craft a novel strategy for their company, a new product for their customers, or a better way to organize their employees. In a world that never stops changing, great leaders never stop learning. Today, the challenge for leaders at every level is no longer just to out-hustle, out-muscle, and out-maneuver the competition.

• Average Is Over. What's Your Extra?

  Bill Taylor

  19 Dec 2011 | 6:05 am

  I approach a book by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman with a mixture of wariness and anticipation. Wariness because Friedman's books tend to go on for many pages longer than they need to, and many of those pages contain his trademark blend of Davos Man self-congratulation and cheesy metaphors. Yet I still have a sense of anticipation because in every one of Friedman's books there are a handful of insights that are so clear, so sharp, so flat-out right that they frame how you look at the world going forward. That Used to Be Us, Friedman's newest book (written with Johns Hopkins…

• Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should

  Bill Taylor

  6 Dec 2011 | 11:52 am

  As we come to the end of a bitter, divisive, downright ugly year in business and society, it's hard to pick the one big story that defines the climate of the times. This summer's rancorous debt-ceiling talks come to mind, as do the collapse of the feckless Italian government and the rise of Occupy Wall Street and its satellite movements around the country and the world. But if I had to pick one small story that provides a huge "teachable moment" for business leaders going forward, I'd choose Bank of America's late-September decision to charge customers a $5 monthly fee to use their debit…

• Don't Let What You Know Limit What You Imagine

  Bill Taylor

  29 Nov 2011 | 12:03 pm

  One of the most perplexing features of these troubled times is that so many capable people in so many fields look so lost and ineffective. Whether it's the stubborn inefficiencies of the health-care system, the ever-rising costs of the higher-education system, even the slow-motion collapse of the US postal system, leaders with unrivaled expertise and decades of experience can't seem to develop creative solutions to dire problems. Why are so many smart executives so ineffective? One answer may be that all this experience is itself a problem. In her underappreciated book, The Innovation Killer,…

• The Values Proposition: Do Small Things with Great Love

  Bill Taylor

  24 Oct 2011 | 7:18 am

  The world confronts vast uncertainty, from unrest in the social climate to accelerating shifts in the climate itself. The economy faces huge challenges, from public-debt crises in Europe to the overhang of mortgage debt in the U.S. The business community faces an ongoing series of stops and starts, from the loss of an icon like Steve Jobs to the rise of new-economy giants like Amazon and Facebook. There is a temptation, amidst the turmoil, for pundits to conclude that the only sensible response is to make bold bets — new business models that challenge the logic of an industry, products…

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  The Tom Peters Weblog

• Off the Cuff #2

  Shelley Dolley

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:17 am

  Our Off the Cuff video series is a direct response from Tom to your questions. This is the second video in the series, which poses the question, "What is the greatest piece of advice you ever received that has made you a better writer or communicator?" It's a terrific question for Tom, and he discusses not only writing influences, but touches on public speaking as well. Don't miss the Dan Pink technique at the end; it may feel excruciating in practice, but there's no denying the improvement gained.

• TLBT Video #73Strategy: Measure Innovation

  Cathy Mosca

  3 Feb 2012 | 8:46 am

  We've posted the latest video in The Little BIG Things series on YouTube. Do you think it's impossible to measure innovation? In this video, Tom offers a brilliantly simple, easy-to-implement method for ensuring that a good portion of your work meets the mark on innovation. You can find the video in the right-hand column of this page or watch it at YouTube (time: 2 minutes 3 seconds). Or, get a PDF transcript of the video's content: Strategy: Measure Innovation.

• MOAP #4

  Cathy Mosca

  30 Jan 2012 | 7:53 am

  The latest installment of Tom's "Mother of All Presentations," or MOAP, is now available at ExcellenceNow.com. You can download the PowerPoint version or a PDF. We'll be releasing a section every other week throughout 2012. Part 4 introduces Tom's conviction that encouraging your people to make friends in other functions of the organization should be a top priority. Tom says you should reward such behavior, make it an agenda item. Download Part 4 of Tom's Mother of All Presentations, and learn how and why cross-functional socialization (read, idea-sharing) is essential to business excellence.

• Race to Nowhere

  Shelley Dolley

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:51 am

  Tom has said, "We tell our kids to 'be still,' then tell them to 'read history books'—which are replete (100%!) with tales of people ... who never sat still." This is obviously not the ideal way to cultivate a talented workforce. The education system in the United States still seems to be attempting to churn out well-behaved factory workers. With the enormous pressure placed on teachers to produce sufficient test results, the classroom becomes more about test preparation than exploration and discovery. Albert Einstein, long since deceased, had this to say: "It is nothing short of a…

• Advice, For What It's Worth ...

  Tom Peters

  25 Jan 2012 | 7:20 am

  I was asked to contribute (a very few words) to a family page offering words of wisdom to a graduating high school senior. That's a serious challenge—and I literally spent days on the task. Here, for better or for worse, is the result: Rules For Living Life to the Hilt Nothing will turn out the way you thought it would. There is no bigger waste of time than making plans. Any success you have will be the byproduct of having thrown yourself headlong and without reserve into what you were most passionate about—and then ridden the wave you created wherever and at whatever speed it…

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  Why Advertising Sucks

• We should do this more often: Say Something Nice!

  Me

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:10 am

• High Five Escalator RULES

  Me

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:31 am

• How to advertise diet things correctly. Basically, LIE.

  Me

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:48 pm

• Five Type of Women that Annoy: Me.

  Me

  6 Feb 2012 | 5:02 pm

  That's it. Ladies, I'm about to betray you. Nah, nah. It's not my fault. It's other bitches out there, real low life scum ovary-carrying humans who give the rest of us normal chicks a real bad name. Today, I'm going to commit the sin of writing a good tell all to the few good men out there. Why? 'Cause I'm tired of seeing great, amazing dudes get fucked over - and not in a wham bam thank you Mam way. I can't see another sad guy who doesn't deserve some shit from a fucked up chick! So listen up, guys out there. I'm going to give you a list of women that YOU NEED TO AVOID. I'll give you as much…

• Shit New Yorkers Say.

  Me

  6 Feb 2012 | 12:09 pm

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  Marketing Pilgrim - Internet News and Opinion

• Compete Says Google+ Is Becoming An Enormous Success

  Frank Reed

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:12 am

  No matter how you feel about Google, Plus 1′s and Google + or how you think they should or should not influence search results you have to admit that Google has created some positive social waves for the first time in its history. So just how big is this impact? Compete calls it enormous It is now safe to say that Google+ is becoming an enormous success, with nearly half of the unique visitors of Twitter (40,411,065 unique visitors in December). With a steep upward trend and knowledge of the power behind a Google product, expect continued growth from the unequaled search engine’s…

• Valentine’s Day Shoppers Plan for a Budget Holiday

  Cynthia Boris

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:55 pm

  It’s February. Love is in the air and the chocolates are piling up in the stores. Valentine’s Day is less than a week away but folks are still planning on how they’ll honor their partners without going over budget. A new survey from PriceGrabber shows that 68% of shoppers will spend under $100 on Valentine’s Day, most spending between $25 and $50. For most shoppers, this is about the same as last year. 4% of loved ones are going to be in for a shock when their partner comes home empty handed. In addition to buying for their spouse, 36% of shoppers said they’ll be…

• What Does a ‘Like’ Get You These Days?

  Cynthia Boris

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:54 pm

  We often talk about how much a “like” is worth in terms of marketing. But what is a “like” worth to the consumer? Take a look at this chart from eMarketer. The results clearly show that consumers expect to get something in return for their click. But when the CMO Council asked marketers what they thought, they said that consumers clicked out of loyalty or love for their product. It is true that clicking the like button does imply a certain fondness for a brand, but love will only get you so far. Once the bloom is off the rose, consumers want to be rewarded for their…

• Is Path CEO a Zuckerberg Disciple?

  Frank Reed

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:31 pm

  Today, the fledgling social network Path was forced to issue an apology based on how it used contact data from its users. That’s an oversimplification of course but you can find plenty of places where the incidentals have been explained. Even Path investors like Michael Arrington’s CrunchFund had to call out the company. The story of the day is definitely about Path (a CrunchFund portfolio company). The company has been copying address book information to their servers without user knowledge. The company was apparently already aware of the issue and was taking steps to address it…

• Google Screenwise: Google Looks To Learn How Everyday People Use the Internet

  Frank Reed

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:08 am

  While the Internet cynics are looking at the Google Screenwise project as something curious in light of recent Google moves, I find the general idea a bit refreshing and something that has been sorely missing from the equation for a very long time. The page at Google which describes this service offering says the following Google is building a new panel to learn more about how everyday people use the Internet. The new project is called Screenwise. As a panelist, you’ll add a browser extension that will share with Google the sites you visit and how you use them. What we learn from you,…

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  Brand Insight Blog

• Conversion Branding. How to make your website work — on many levels.

  John Furgurson

  17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pm

  There seems to be a trend in website development these days… more and more cookie-cutter, template-driven websites that are wearily one dimensional. The fact is, if you want the maximum return from your website investment, it needs to work on many different levels.  Let’s look at what those are: The Functional, Phonebook Level In case you hadn’t noticed, the phone book is fading faster than the first generation Blackberry.  Now that we all have a web-enabled computer in our hands at all times, Google is the phonebook of choice. So on the most basic level, your website needs to…

• Incongruity: Breaking through all the babaganoushit.

  John Furgurson

  11 Nov 2011 | 3:58 pm

  Sometimes, one single word is everything. The difference between a marketing home run and a dribbling bunt. I recently ran into a client who was completely fixated on one word in a headline: “Precious.” “Babies are precious, not parking places,” she argued. “Yes, but diamonds are also precious. And what’s more valuable than diamonds?” I countered. By using that one word I exaggerated the value of the free parking and elevated that little product feature to an entirely different realm. It was an effective use of incongruity in advertising, and she just couldn’t get her head…

• Brand authenticity — Keeping it real, honest, genuine and true.

  John Furgurson

  28 Apr 2010 | 2:14 pm

  I hate buzzwords. Every time a new marketing term shows up on the cover of a book I find myself having to translate the jargon into something meaningful for ordinary, busy business people. Lately, it’s “Authenticity.” Seems “keeping it real” has become a household term. And a branding imperative. In The New Marketing Manifesto John Grant says “Authenticity is the benchmark against which all brands are now judged.” If that’s the case, we better have a damn good definition of what we’re talking about. “Authentic” is derived from the Greek authentikós,…

• Masterful Brand Management

  John Furgurson

  8 Apr 2010 | 10:18 pm

  It’s Masters Week —  the biggest week of the year in golf, and a tide-turning event for several brands. Most notably, this one: The Tiger Woods logo for Nike Over the last 9 months the Tiger Woods brand has, shall we say, strayed a bit. The “indiscreations” of Tiger’s personal life have cost his brand millions in endorsement deals, and even more in public goodwill. As one sports writer put it, “it’s the most dramatic fall from grace in the history of sport.” For Tiger Woods and company, The Masters represents the perfect venue for a comeback, and an ideal brand affiliation.

• Inspiration For Office And Website Makeovers.

  John Furgurson

  14 Mar 2010 | 12:30 pm

  Moved into a swanky new office building last week. (Great views of Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, Three Sisters and the Phoenix Inn parking lot.) The Alexander Drake Building, Downtown Bend, OR As I was unpacking boxes, lifting heavy furniture and contemplating the feng shui, it occurred to me that professional service firms spend a lot of time and money on their office space. And rightly so. For companies with no tangible product to sell, it’s a crucial component of the brand. For instance, when it comes to selecting an ad agency, office space always figures into the equation. The workspace is…

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  ICC/Decision Services

• JC Penney roots

  drich

  6 Feb 2012 | 5:13 am

  On Feb 1st, JC Penney unveiled its new pricing strategy and service policies called Fair and Square. JC Penney describes it as three kinds of pricing, one happy return policy. It got our attention for a couple reasons. Simplicity of message: The three kinds of pricing are everyday low pricing, month-long values and best prices. The “best prices” will happen on the 1st and 3rd fridays of every month. Leadership change: Ron Johnson used to be the Senior VP of Retail for Apple and is now the CEO of JC Penney. He helped shape the Apple Store concept and Genius Bar. At first blush, we…

• Expanding your footprint without adding footage

  drich

  26 Jan 2012 | 6:11 pm

  Speed Theory is not your ordinary bike shop. Besides selling some sweet Cervelo, Felts and Argon bicycles for your next Ironman, it is also a place where anyone can get a great bike to compete in the local mini triathlon or just to cruise on some backroads. Speed Theory makes great use of its real estate, even when the shop is closed. When I arrived at 5:30 am, the temperature was –22° F and I watched people trickle in — carrying their bicycles and trainer apparatus — until there were about twenty of us in all. They were all coming for spin class, but this was not like the…

• Kelly Swallow knows who she is

  drich

  6 Jan 2012 | 8:29 am

  Watch this video. It is very short (7 seconds.) And that’s kinda the point I’m about to make. Kelly Swallow makes chairs that make people smile. To do Service with Boundaries well, you need to start off with a solid foundation. You have to know who you are. Who is Swallow? She’s the designer who makes chairs that make people smile. It is short, simple and direct. In setting and sticking to her core DNA, Swallow’s entire business has a natural flow to the other two formula components: Listen to your customer… most of the time and You can’t improve what you…

• No reservations

  drich

  27 Dec 2011 | 9:22 am

  I’m vacationing with my family in Europe over the next week, visiting Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. One of my favorite places to visit when I am in Paris is Le Relais de l’Entrecôte. I like it mostly because they have defined the boundaries of dining experience They serve only one entrée; steak frites cooked rare, medium rare or medium. You order your steak the way you like it and the server writes it on your tablecloth, then brings out your salad — lettuce topped with walnuts and a mustard vinaigrette. After your salad starter, your steak is brought to you in two stages,…

• No rain, no rainbows

  drich

  21 Dec 2011 | 6:27 am

  What do you do with almost $10,000 worth of merchandise that you can’t return to online retailers because their return procedures are so dysfunctional? If you are STELLAService, you break out the wrapping paper and bows, have a wrapping party and donate the items to various charities throughout New York City. And we decided to help them. STELLAService tests online retailers by purchasing and returning real products as a normal customer would. Usually they return the items, but due to poor customer service they were stuck with this stuff. Turning rain into rainbows. In this case,…

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  The Economist: The world this week

• Politics this week

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:03 am

• Business this week

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:03 am

• KAL's cartoon

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:03 am

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  SmartBrief on Leadership

• Myanmar rebels dodge bullets, then shoot birdies

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  After a hard day battling government troops, Myanmar's rebel fighters like to decompress by playing a round or two of golf.  -More- Executive Vice President Media Works Ltd.

• Do your workers know when it's OK to unplug?

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  If you e-mail your workers at 4 a.m.  -More- 

• It's morning in Africa

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  Africa's economy is looking up, writes Ndubuisi Ekekwe.  -More- 

• 3 lessons from the Komen crisis

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  The reaction to the Komen Foundation's decision to defund Planned Parenthood, later reversed, shows the need for leaders to p -More- 

• Why leaders should be philosophers

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  Business leaders should be philosophers, says John Petrucci.  -More- 

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  Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog

• Lead With Purpose

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:38 pm

  Without a clear sense of purpose, organizations become listless. John Baldoni says in Lead With Purpose that it falls to the leader to make certain that organizational purpose is understood and acted upon. Retired Army colonel, George Reed told Baldoni that the importance of this cannot be underestimated: I don’t think you can hit purpose enough as a senior leader. It is one of those things that can be undercommunicated by an order of magnitude. You cannot oversell, overpronounce “Here’s why we’re here.” The problem is that leaders think that they have communicated it enough, but…

• 5 Leadership Lessons: Great Leaders Grow

  6 Feb 2012 | 9:52 pm

  Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller have penned another business fable, Great Leaders Grow. People and organizations are not fully alive unless they are growing. They ask, “will you be a leader who is always ready to face the next challenge, or will you be a leader that tries to apply yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems? The latter will ultimately fail,” say the authors. The solution is to GROW:   Growth is the leader’s fountain of youth. Growing, for great leaders, is like breathing. It’s not optional. It is not something you do in addition to your real job. It is at the…

• Leading Views: Ideas are Immortal. Inspiration is Perishable.

  3 Feb 2012 | 5:05 pm

  In ReWork—a go-to book for inspiration—authors Jason Fried and David Hansson explain why you need to get on with it. Just do it. We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn’t last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date. If you want to do something, you’ve got to do it now. You can’t put it on the shelf and wait two months to get around to it. You can’t just say you’ll do it later. Later, you won’t be pumped up about it anymore. If you’re inspired on a Friday, swear of the weekend and dive into the…

• First Look: Leadership Books for February 2012

  1 Feb 2012 | 12:02 am

  Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in February.   Collaborate: The Art of We by Dan Sanker   Good Idea. Now What? How to Move Ideas to Execution by Charles T. Lee   The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg   Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More by Jason W. Womack   Make Up Your Mind: A Decision Making Guide to Thinking Clearly and Choosing Wisely by Hal Mooz For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 120 titles. All…

• LeadershipNow 140: January 2012 Compilation

  31 Jan 2012 | 1:54 pm

  Here are a selection of tweets from January 2012 that you might have missed: Video: President Abraham Lincoln and Leadership via @jamesstrock Lonely at Work by @wallybock "Relationships grow through communication." 7 Marks of a Great Leader by @RonEdmondson @mjasmus asks "What Do You Need to do More Of?" >Key question Mike Henry Sr: You Can’t Learn Anything with Your Mouth Open We handicap our potential when we think we have to exploit others to get ahead. Succeeding is not a zero-sum game. More @DPForrester: Gotta Have It Now, Right Now @PeteThePlanner: Would you agree that Kindness is the…

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  Great Leadership

• How to Survive a Meeting with the CEO

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:14 pm

  Most employees NEVER get to have a meeting with the CEO of their company. So if you do, it’s a one-shot deal that you don’t want to screw up. After all, exposure is a double-edged sword, and many CEOs and senior executives have short attention spans but long memories. This post isn’t written for the seasoned executive or middle manager who has regular interactions with the CEO. These managers have already earned their scars through the school of hard knocks, and are now completely at ease using the executive restroom. Rather, it’s written as a way to provide some mentoring assistance…

• Leadership Development Carnival – Super Bowl Edition and 2012 Schedule

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:18 am

  The big game may be history, but the February 5th, 2012 Leadership Development Carnival is still in overtime! This month's edition is hosted by the extremely talented team of bloggers over at Talented Apps. Thanks to Mark Bennett for leading the effort. You can find it right here - there's over 20 recent game-winning leadership posts from an all-star cast of Carnival regulars. 2012 Carnival Schedule and Submission Information: I'm hosting the March 4th edition back here at Great Leadership. If you'd like to submit a recent (within 2 weeks of Carnival publish…

• How to Find a Business Mentor Who'll Help You Achieve Your Leadership Goals

  3 Feb 2012 | 1:55 pm

  I often get asked for advice on how to find a mentor. This guest post by Rene D. Petrin provides a nice 8-step approach: Back in December, Dan talked about "10 Big Development Goals for Leaders in 2012." Goal #7 in the blog post stated: “Find a mentor and/or hire a coach.” While a formal mentoring relationship – meaning one that takes place in a monitored program within an organization – is the ideal, sometimes an informal mentoring relationship is what’s available. The question is how do you go about making it happen? Here are eight steps to follow: Step #1: Identify one or two…

• A Performance Management Model

  30 Jan 2012 | 9:04 am

  As a follow-up to the recent post and comments "Are You Managing or Just Nagging?", here's everything you need to facilitate a robust dialog on performance management, with lots of room for grey areas. A. Simple model: B. Supporting material for each quadrant: 1. Managing: How to Discuss an Employee Performance Problem 2. Nagging: Are You Managing or Just Nagging? 3. Vacation: 10 Reasons to go on a Vacation 4. Avoiding: The Cowardly Manager’s Guide to Dealing with Poor Performers Just made it up over the weekend - what do you think? Make sense? What's missing, what would…

• Leading in a New Direction - 3 Techniques for Thinking up New Business Ideas

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:27 am

  Here's a guest post from entrepreneur Duncan Murtagh,"an Irishman living in Taiwan, who has been to New Hampshire several times": How can we move past the tough times of 2011 to a more profitable 2012? Well we could start by coming up with some new ideas to drive revenue growth. In this article I’ll demonstrate 3 different techniques that 3 very different businesses could use, and may have used, to think up new business ideas. 1. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. checklist of questions is a powerful tool for looking at your existing product/service lines and coming up with new variations. Probably the…

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  CEO Blog - Time Leadership

• Brothers Weekend - Solving the Greece Problem

  Jim Estill

  5 Feb 2012 | 4:28 pm

  I am just back from Brothers' weekend - an Estill brother tradition for 20 plus years. It was a great weekend (although we still miss my brother Mark). I find on brothers' weekends I often laugh more in a short weekend than I do in a month.The weekend was held at my youngest brother, Lyle's house in North Carolina.At first I was honoured to be invited to help solve the Greece problem but when I arrived I found out it was a grease problem (my brother Lyle owns a Biodiesel plant).Busy weekend. I helped Lyle deliver a truckload of biodiesel (well, perhaps not helped but road shotgun). We kayaked…

• The See Do Time Management System

  Jim Estill

  3 Feb 2012 | 3:53 am

  Lately I have been using a slightly different time management technique which I call the "See Do" method. As the word implies, I see it and I do it.This method works great for keeping things clean and tidy. See a spot, wipe it. See something out of place, put it away.In email. I get an email and deal with it. Previously I had often used a 2 minute rule. If I could deal with it in less than 2 minutes I would but leave the longer ones. And during busy times, I would reduce that to a minute or less.The see do method helps reduce stress and that nagging feeling there is something still ahead to…

• YPO in Panama

  Jim Estill

  30 Jan 2012 | 3:06 pm

  I am just back from a YPO event in Panama. I had never been there. Interesting country.If I were to invest in Latin America (and I do not - lots of business close to home), Panama would be my choice. They have only 3.5 million people and have a canal that delivers $3.6 Billion in revenue which keeps the economy stimulated. And the Billion in profit goes to pay for education and other government services.And Panama signed a neutrality pact which means they cannot have any navy or military so there is no tax to fund that.Only downfall might be the differences in income from lower to upper class…

• Simple Works

  Jim Estill

  24 Jan 2012 | 5:55 am

  A friend emailed me the following (although as a brevity guy, I slightly edited it):A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes, without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new…

• Management Tips

  Jim Estill

  23 Jan 2012 | 3:53 am

  We finally got a bit of snow. It is beautiful. And grandson Josh continues to flourish. He does quite an ab workout (I tried doing it). Lying on his back and kicking his feet and hands. It is tough.I read a neat little book by Harvard Business Review that is just called Management Tips. It is divided into 3 sections - Managing Yourself, Managing Your Team and Managing Your Business. Each page is a short stand alone tip. There are about 200 tips. An example:"Be Confident But Not Really Sure.One of the keys to effective decision making is confidence. Even if you only have temporary convictions,…

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  Seth's Blog

• Inaccurate labels and why we need them (and need to improve them)

  Seth Godin

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:46 am

  If I tell you, "I'm going to the baseball game," it seems as though you're likely to understand what I mean. Of course, you won't. When George Will goes to a baseball game, it's a religious experience. Me, I don't even like baseball. Or maybe it's my nephew's ball game (the playoffs), or maybe going to the game causes me to miss an important event, and on and on. We label the experience with just two words, and two words can't possibly capture the emotions and circumstance surrounding an event. The same thing is true with brands. If I tell you that a new business was funded by USV, that might…

• How do they know you're not a flake?

  Seth Godin

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 am

  Before your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures. Do I know this person? Did someone I trust send them over? Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?) Has she won an award? Is she famous? Are there typos and is the design sloppy? Are they pestering me? Do I already follow this person online? Does music play when I visit the website? Will…

• Horizontal marketing isn't a new idea

  Seth Godin

  7 Feb 2012 | 2:09 am

  But it is the new reality for just about every organization. Vertical marketing means the marketer (the one with money) is in charge. Vertical marketing starts at the top and involves running ads, sending out direct mail and pushing hype through the media. Your money, your plans, your control. It might not work, but generally the worst outcome is that you will be ignored and need to spend more money. Horizonal marketing, on the other hand, means creating a remarkable product and story and setting it up to spread from person to person. It's out of your control, because all the interactions are…

• Who is your customer?

  Seth Godin

  6 Feb 2012 | 2:26 am

  Rule one: You can build a business on the foundation of great customer service. Rule two: The only way to do great customer service is to treat different customers differently. The question: Who is your customer? It's not obvious. Zappos is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the shoes. Nike, on the other hand, doesn't care very much at all about the people who buy the shoes, or even the retailers. They care about the athletes (often famous) that wear the shoes, sometimes for money. They name buildings after these athletes, court them, erect…

• In search of a timid trapeze artist

  Seth Godin

  5 Feb 2012 | 2:01 am

  Good luck with that, there aren't any. If you hesitate when leaping from rope to another, you're not going to last very long. And this is at the heart of what makes innovation work in organizations, why industries die, and how painful it is to try to maintain the status quo while also participating in a revolution. Gather up as much speed as you can, find a path and let go. You can't get to the next rope if you're still holding on to this one.

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  Lead on Purpose

• Managing conflict

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  4 Feb 2012 | 9:59 am

  “In a environment that is often fearful and ego-driven, she created a space where people could give up their worries and thrive.” The word ‘conflict’ is used in so many ways that I’m conflicted as I try to make sense of it (ok, that was a ‘tongue-in-cheek for my good friend Jim Holland). For purposes of this post, ‘conflict’ is a mental struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes or demands. It’s manifest in both internal and external ways; internal conflicts based on our beliefs and ethics, and external conflicts between individuals, groups or…

• Guest Post: 7 Key Elements To Building A High Performance Team and Organization

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  28 Jan 2012 | 8:28 am

  By John C. Stevens Managers and executives, who are trying to improve the performance of their teams, are actively helping to improve the overall performance of their organization. Wondering what you can do to boost your team’s engagement and output? Keep in mind these key elements of performance management: Image Source: Guillermo Camargo Leadership. In order to get a group performing effectively, you need a leader who thinks and communicates clearly. An effective leader is one who has a clear vision of his or her team’s purpose and can effectively communicate that vision to the members…

• Leadership and integrity

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  21 Jan 2012 | 9:34 am

  Integrity is one of the top attributes of a great leader. It is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcomes. It connotes a deep commitment to do the right thing for the right reason, regardless of the circumstances. People who live with integrity are incorruptible and incapable of breaking the trust of those who have confided in them. Every human is born with a conscience and therefore the ability to know right from wrong. Choosing the right, regardless of the consequence, is the hallmark of integrity. In his recent post 10 Mistakes…

• Making tough decisions

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  14 Jan 2012 | 10:37 am

  Making big decision is not easy; in fact it might be one of the most difficult things we ever have to do. The tendency is to postpone decisions as long as we can and put of the pain. At its root the word of decision means to cut off. When you make a decision you go with one thing and leave all the rest behind. Cutting yourself off from other choices is not easy, and that’s at the root of why we tend to put off big decisions. We postpone decisions for various reasons: we don’t want to offend people; we’re not sure who or what to choose; we’re afraid we’ll be wrong…

• Tenacity in 2012

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  31 Dec 2011 | 11:57 am

  Successful people share several common traits; tenacity is at the top. Merriam-Webster defines tenacious as “persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired.” Think about your favorite athlete, actor, business leader, or other successful person and you’re sure to find tenacity as one of their defining characteristics. Tenacity fuels persistence. Persistence is analogous to running a marathon. To run a successful marathon you have to spend ample time (months or more) preparing. The time you spend, and what you do leading up to the race, will determine how…

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  Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

• Brand Ideals Drive Performance

  John Agno

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:10 pm

  Think about what and how you buy in your business and personal life. Whether it's household products or enterprise software services, what ultimately determines why you buy from one company rather than another?  It's their brand's image and reputation along with the relationships you have with them.  A brand is simply the collective intent of the people behind it, a brand defines who you are and what you stand for as a business to everyone the business touches, from employees to end consumers.  If you want great business results, you and your brand have to stand…

• Leading Synergistically

  John Agno

  6 Feb 2012 | 9:43 am

  If you're involved with any group of people who are trying to achieve common goals, you soon become acutely aware that those goals will be achieved only through the work of the people in the group. Yes, all work is done through relationships and wisely managing these relationship is critical to your team, group, division, company and community.  Put simply, organizations don't succeed in and of themselves.  They succeed only through individuals working in groups or teams. The synergistically-oriented leader observes the team interactions from an elevated level, watching…

• Work Together or Fail Alone

  John Agno

  3 Feb 2012 | 7:24 am

  Jonah Lehrer's article, "GroupThink" in The New Yorker, January 30, 2012 states that brainstorming seems like an ideal technique, a feel-good way to boost productivity.  But there is a problem with brainstorming.  It doesn't work. Scientific advances have lead to a situation where all the remaining problems are incredibly hard.  Researchers are forced to become increasingly specialized, because there's only so much information one mind can handle.  And they have to collaborate, because the most interesting mysteries lie at the intersection of disciplines.  "A…

• Credit Crisis: Are We Set for the Perfect Storm?

  John Agno

  26 Jan 2012 | 10:18 am

  In this video clip, taken from Robert Prechter's interview with The Mind of Money, Prechter and host Douglass Lodmell discuss "real" money vs the FIAT money system, and what is backing your dollars under our current system.  Enjoy this 4-minute clip and then watch Prechter's full 45-minute interview here >> Watch the full 45-minute interview FREE Get even more valuable insights as Mind of Money host Douglass Lodmell interviews Elliott Wave International's President, Robert Prechter, about how to keep your money safe, the deflation versus inflation debate, and…

• It's the Economy, Stupid!

  John Agno

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:31 am

  By Roger Lowenstein in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, January 23, 2012 Charles Murray, the conservative sociologist, has written an incisive, alarming, and hugely frustrating book about the state of American society. No sense withholding the punchline: He thinks we’re in decline. The American rich are living cloistered and isolated lives, depriving the mainstream of their fraternity, their wisdom, and their skills. A growing number at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum are dropping out in another respect—abandoning work, family, and community. At risk is what Murray affectionately…

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  Great Leadership

• How to Survive a Meeting with the CEO

  Dan McCarthy

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:14 pm

  Most employees NEVER get to have a meeting with the CEO of their company. So if you do, it’s a one-shot deal that you don’t want to screw up. After all, exposure is a double-edged sword, and many CEOs and senior executives have short attention spans but long memories. This post isn’t written for the seasoned executive or middle manager who has regular interactions with the CEO. These managers have already earned their scars through the school of hard knocks, and are now completely at ease using the executive restroom. Rather, it’s written as a way to provide some mentoring assistance…

• Leadership Development Carnival – Super Bowl Edition and 2012 Schedule

  Dan McCarthy

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:18 am

  The big game may be history, but the February 5th, 2012 Leadership Development Carnival is still in overtime! This month's edition is hosted by the extremely talented team of bloggers over at Talented Apps. Thanks to Mark Bennett for leading the effort. You can find it right here - there's over 20 recent game-winning leadership posts from an all-star cast of Carnival regulars. 2012 Carnival Schedule and Submission Information: I'm hosting the March 4th edition back here at Great Leadership. If you'd like to submit a recent (within 2 weeks of Carnival publish…

• How to Find a Business Mentor Who'll Help You Achieve Your Leadership Goals

  Dan McCarthy

  3 Feb 2012 | 1:55 pm

  I often get asked for advice on how to find a mentor. This guest post by Rene D. Petrin provides a nice 8-step approach: Back in December, Dan talked about "10 Big Development Goals for Leaders in 2012." Goal #7 in the blog post stated: “Find a mentor and/or hire a coach.” While a formal mentoring relationship – meaning one that takes place in a monitored program within an organization – is the ideal, sometimes an informal mentoring relationship is what’s available. The question is how do you go about making it happen? Here are eight steps to follow: Step #1: Identify one or two…

• A Performance Management Model

  Dan McCarthy

  30 Jan 2012 | 9:04 am

  As a follow-up to the recent post and comments "Are You Managing or Just Nagging?", here's everything you need to facilitate a robust dialog on performance management, with lots of room for grey areas. A. Simple model: B. Supporting material for each quadrant: 1. Managing: How to Discuss an Employee Performance Problem 2. Nagging: Are You Managing or Just Nagging? 3. Vacation: 10 Reasons to go on a Vacation 4. Avoiding: The Cowardly Manager’s Guide to Dealing with Poor Performers Just made it up over the weekend - what do you think? Make sense? What's missing, what would…

• Leading in a New Direction - 3 Techniques for Thinking up New Business Ideas

  Dan McCarthy

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:27 am

  Here's a guest post from entrepreneur Duncan Murtagh,"an Irishman living in Taiwan, who has been to New Hampshire several times": How can we move past the tough times of 2011 to a more profitable 2012? Well we could start by coming up with some new ideas to drive revenue growth. In this article I’ll demonstrate 3 different techniques that 3 very different businesses could use, and may have used, to think up new business ideas. 1. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. checklist of questions is a powerful tool for looking at your existing product/service lines and coming up with new variations. Probably the…

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  I Believe in Advertising | ONLY SELECTED ADVERTISING | Advertising Blog & Community

• McDonald’s McCafé: Rainy Day, Lots of Questions, Good Ideas, Confession, Shy Girl

  Filippo

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:35 am

  “Everything good begins with a good cup of coffee.” Advertising Agency: TBWA, Berlin, Germany Chief Creative Officer: Stefan Schmidt, Kurt Georg Dieckert Creative Director: Vesna Koselj, Lucio Regner Art Director: Andrew Morgan Account Supervisor: Christoph Erdmann Designer: Andrew Morgan

• Ed Hardy Tattoo Stickers: Legs, Belly, Waist

  Filippo

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:35 pm

  “Ed Hardy. Tattoos without needles.” Advertising Agency: Y&R, Beijing, China Chief Creative Officer: Nils Andersson, Marcus Rebeschini Executive Creative Director: Gunny Park Creative Director: Ronnie Wu, Donghai Liu Copywriter: Donghai Liu, Nils Andersson, Gao Han Art Director: Ronnie Wu, Roy Luo, Rex Rui, Shi Jian Photographer: Shi Zhong

• Rialto Channel: The Kings Speech

  Filippo

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:43 pm

  “Independent film for independent ideas.” Advertising Agency: DDB, Auckland, New Zealand Executive Creative Director: Toby Talbot, Andy Fackrell Creative Director: Regan Grafton Art Director: Damian Galvin Copywriter: Rory Mckechnie Head of Art: Dave Brady Planner: David McIndoe Account Director: Danielle Richards Agency Producer: Andy Robilliard Photographer: Lewis Mulatero Retoucher: Gordon Moir Designer: Renee Lam Account Manager: Brad Armstrong, Victoria Meo

• Peugeot 308 Touring: Moon, Sun, Cloud

  Filippo

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:25 pm

  “Let the outside world in. 308 Touring with Panoramic Glass Roof.” Advertising Agency: Arnold Furnace, Sydney, Australia Creative Directors: Paul Fenton, Tom Spicer Copywriter / Art Director: Luke Duggan Photographer: Alan McFetridge Retoucher: Cream Studios

• Audi A1: Youhuuu

  Filippo

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:44 am

  “New Audi A1 Sportback. Amusement without breaks.” Advertising Agency: Verba, Milan, Italy Executive Creative Director: Michelangelo Cianciosi, Luca Cortesini Art Director: Daniel Cambò Ilustrator: Mozart

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  Scott Anthony

• Don't Confuse Passion with Competence

  Scott Anthony

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:26 am

  The most successful innovators are consistently portrayed as possessing a passion that borders on dogmatism. They work tirelessly to bend reality to achieve their vision, with Steve Jobs and his "reality distortion field" serving as the prototypical example. There's no doubt that passion is a critical component of innovation. After all, innovation is awfully hard work, with plenty of false starts. Rosabeth Moss Kanter teaches that everything can look like a failure in the middle. Mike Tyson puts it another way: "Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face." Passion is necessary…

• A.G. Lafley vs. Steve Jobs

  Scott Anthony

  23 Jan 2012 | 1:41 pm

  Usually the question comes right after I tell an audience that I put former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley on my "Innovation Mount Rushmore" as a reminder of the importance of investing time and energy to understand the target market. "But how do you square that with Steve Jobs?" an intrepid audience member asks. "After all, Jobs said, 'It isn't the customer's job to know what they want.'" It feels like a classic battle — the scientific approach of a company that launches 80 market research studies a day versus the intuitive touch of the iconic innovator of our time. But it's a false…

• Kodak and the Brutal Difficulty of Transformation

  Scott Anthony

  17 Jan 2012 | 9:46 am

  2012 has not gotten off to a great start for Eastman Kodak. Three of the company's directors quit near the end of last year, and word recently emerged that the company was on the brink of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The easy narrative is that Kodak is a classic case of a company blind to the disruptive changes in its marketplace. Like many easy narratives, this one is not quite right. In the 20th century, Kodak was truly one of the world's powerhouses. Its rise to prominence began when it launched its affordable Brownie camera in 1900. In the decades that followed Kodak…

• How to Choose the Ideas Your Company Should Invest In

  Scott Anthony

  11 Jan 2012 | 6:51 am

  My last post described how Innosight follows a three-stage process to evaluate investment proposals from outside entrepreneurs. But deciding how to invest in ideas at a corporation is a different beast. In The Innovator's Guide to Growth we suggested that companies should create one-page "Idea Resumes" that capture the essence of an idea on a single PowerPoint slide. After this starting point, however, our VC process holds pretty well. The first decision is whether to explore an idea more deeply. Consider some combination of the following criteria: Does what we hope to do fit our strategy?

• A Disciplined Approach to Evaluating Ideas

  Scott Anthony

  3 Jan 2012 | 8:37 am

  "Make sure you ask the right questions at the right time." That's one memorable piece of advice from a leader at a global innovation powerhouse. Unfortunately, it is a piece of advice that is heeded too infrequently inside large companies. At many companies, the idea evaluation process revolves around detailed Excel spreadsheets, comprehensive PowerPoint documents, and an orchestrated sequence of pre-meetings leading up to a decision meeting. This kind of disciplined approach works very well when companies have knowledge that lets them be precise in their analysis, and executives have the…

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  HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog

• How to Score Your Leads So Sales Works the Hottest Prospects

  Pamela Vaughan

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:47 pm

  The good news about inbound marketing is that it can help you attract high volumes of leads. The challenge then becomes, how do you separate the good, quality leads from the people who are just starting to look around? That’s where lead management, and specifically, lead scoring comes in. With lead scoring, you can attach values to each of your leads based on their professional information and the behavior they’ve exhibited on your website. For example, you would likely rank a vice president-level lead who has spent time on both your products and pricing page higher than an…

• A Marketer's Complete Guide to Launching Mobile Apps

  Corey Eridon

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:02 am

  According to former CEO of AppVee and AndroidApps Alex Ahlund, the average cost to develop a mobile app is $6,453 -- and the cost can skyrocket to as much as $150,000 depending on the complexity of the app. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, the money and resources you dedicate to conceptualizing and developing a truly great mobile app can all be put to waste if you don't orchestrate a proper mobile app launch. In fact, in December 2011, the 1 millionth mobile app was pushed to market. To give you an idea of just how quickly these mobile apps are being released, at the end of 2010, there…

• How to Attract the RIGHT Social Media Followers for Your Business

  Meghan Keaney Anderson

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am

  The benefits of an extensive social reach are clear, but how do you attract the right followers for your company? As with most inbound marketing, relevancy can make or break the effectiveness of your strategy. So to ensure you have a social media following that helps you advance your marketing objectives, start by identifying a set of core topics that reflect the interests of people who typically become your customers. If you're a HubSpot customer, you can use the Keywords App and the Social Media Prospects App to help with this. For example, we at HubSpot would choose the…

• Why User-Generated Content Is More Important Than You Think

  Corey Eridon

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:33 am

  A certain group of consumers has been gaining attention from marketers recently, because of the strong role they play in the purchasing decision; these power purchasers are known as Generation Y. Whether they're part of the target audience to which you sell or not, this group is worth considering as part of your inbound marketing strategy because there's a strong likelihood they either will become part of your target audience in the future, or because they already influence your target audience now. Let's break down who these power purchasers are, some of the interesting demographics and…

• How to Create Marketing Offers That Don't Fall Flat

  Pamela Vaughan

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:16 am

  In marketing, offers are the gateways to lead generation. Without them, site visitors have no way of getting converted into leads. They are also a critical tool for nurturing existing leads into a position that makes them more sales-ready. But gosh, isn't the word 'offer' so utterly vague and abstract? What the heck is a marketing offer, and what are the qualities of a good one? Because we see so many marketers get tripped up on this concept, let's discuss exactly what a marketing offer can be, highlight the characteristics of an effective offer, and explain how you can start using them the…

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  MarketingProfs How-To Articles

• Four Keyword Research Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  If you are serious about the words "sales," "profit," and "conversions," you must master keyword research. Learn four common pitfalls marketers make when selecting keywords--and how to avoid them. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

• The Inside Scoop on Using Twitter Lists for Profit and Sanity

  3 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  The dirty secret of Twitter is that as helpful as it can be, it's also a time sink. Learn how properly using and cleaning up your Twitter lists can help you save time--and generate leads for your business. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

• 10 Hot Tips (and a Promo Campaign Planner) for Seasonal Sale Success

  2 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  Customers today expect more deals and offers during holiday seasons, so it's important to create seasonal campaigns to increase revenues. Here are 10 tips--and a campaign planner--to help you achieve seasonal sale success. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

• Five Tips for Implementing a Successful QR Code Campaign

  1 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  QR codes can be inexpensive to implement and can provide you a measureable return on investment--if you use them correctly. Learn five invaluable tips for implementing an effective QR code campaign. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

• Four Easy Tactics for Becoming a Must-Follow Account on Twitter

  31 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am

  Twitter is a powerful channel that can help you connect with customers, promote products, and create brand awareness. Learn four tactics for making your Twitter account a social media heavyweight in your industry. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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  Brian Solis

• Meet the Mother of All Processes

  Brian Solis

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:32 am

  Guest post by John M. Bernard, author of the new book, Business at the Speed of Now, and Chairman and Founder of Mass Ingenuity. Imagine going to work in one of Henry Ford’s factories a century ago, proud that management referred to you a “hand” or a “hammer” or maybe even a “wrench.” The labels reflected Ford’s emphasis on automation and management’s view of laborers as mere cogs in the machine. Screw this nut onto that bolt; weld this strap to that frame; do it over and over and over again until your brain froze with boredom. Of course, management needed workers to get the…

• 2011 Was the Year of the Mobile Consumer, What’s in Store for 2012? Value.

  Brian Solis

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:10 am

  Chris Silva, my colleague at Altimeter Group, released a useful report today that I wanted to share with you here. Mobile is important and I believe you know this. However, when we consider mobile, we often think about the experience when and where it begins. But, we often miss the opportunity to lead a more meaningful journey as it may travel from small screen to larger screens across laptops, desktops and beyond. And along the way, we must now determine our role in this journey to provide information, shape decisions, and influence behavior. In Chris’ report, he reminds us that 2011…

• Season 2 Finale: How Yamaha invests in new customer experiences

  Brian Solis

  3 Feb 2012 | 10:52 am

  This is it…the Season Finale! And, what a way to end Season 2 of (R)evolution…. In this episode, Yamaha shares what is by far the most expansive view of disruptive technology’s impact on business infrastructure and culture on the show to date. What you’ll see is a genuine discussion with Jeff Hawley and Rick Williams of Yamaha explore how an already successful business is exploring new opportunities to better define the customer experience before, during and after transactions. It comes down to workflow. Nowadays, it either works for you or works against you. Here,…

• Smartphones, Tablets, PCs, The Devices People Use to Discover Information in Social Media (and when)

  Brian Solis

  2 Feb 2012 | 3:13 pm

  My friends over at bit.ly published an interesting graph that reveals the devices as well as the days/times that people use different devices and how and when they consume information. As you can imagine, it’s across the board, but as you can see, there are waves that every device follows, except the desktop. Desktops are of course the devices that we can assume people use during work hours. As such, they are most heavily used on weekdays before noon. Interestingly enough, phone traffic peaks at about the same times, but not to similar effects. What’s also telling is that tablets…

• What’s Love Got to Do with It? The 3P’s of Identity

  Brian Solis

  2 Feb 2012 | 6:16 am

  Guest post by Allison Cerra, author of Identity Shift With the 2012 Presidential election looming, there’s no shortage of polls to help narrow the field of candidates. I find a recent one from Fox News to be particularly fascinating. Among other questions, Republican primary voters were asked which Republican presidential candidate is most likeable and which they would most trust with a nuclear weapon. While Newt Gingrich scored at the top of the heap in earning the trust vote, he scored only marginally well on the likeability scale. The topic was discussed on the network’s “Fox &…

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  Andy Beard - Niche Marketing

• ACTA? Dead Man Walking

  Andy Beard

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:06 pm

  Apparently 22 member states wasted a huge amount of resources signing the ACTA treaty. If the current version had in some way been publicized previously they might have had a vague chance of it not causing a multinational revolt across Europe. The internet population already know how to mobilize… they are SOPA trained. It is easy to slip something past novices who are timid. The internet is now full of battle veterans confident in their ability to use the skills they have learned and the power of their voice to take on governments. The guy from the European Parliament assigned to…

• Dear @twittercomms – A Basic Search Query For Your Engineers

  Andy Beard

  23 Jan 2012 | 10:34 pm

  I am not sure why Twitter engineers are struggling with this, and potentially misleading tech journalists (and even some well respected SEOs) with the SEO issues hampering the indexation of Twitter.com This is all pretty basic technical SEO Here is a very simple cleaned up Google search query that will bring up some interesting results https://www.google.com/search?q=site:twitter.com+inurl:andybeard&filter=0 It doesn’t exclude a subdomain such as www.twitter.com or fr.twitter.com or api.twitter.com Twitter splits their domain authority between lots of different subdomains which…

• Really Evil – The “Don’t Be Evil” Bookmarklet

  Andy Beard

  23 Jan 2012 | 5:56 pm

  It is not as benign as you might think. Here is a link to the original 720p mp4 Some of the points raised in the video We need to avoid a cartel of top sites with limited access, especially with Ggoogle and Facebook currently buying ads from each other in the free market. Identity is important and both Twitter & Facebook fail to provide a method of bi-directional ownership – the “Don’t Be Evil” bookmarklet fails by linking Mark Zuckerberg’s Google+ to a Quora topic page about him… not his actual profile (if he has one) – it is possible for Google…

• Tech Blogging Triple Rainbow

  Andy Beard

  13 Jan 2012 | 3:45 am

  I just had to share this achievement by Mike Masnick as he might not see it himself. The Techmeme page updates extrememly frequently pulling in stories algorithmically with some additional human curation but I have never seen one writer with a lead story and 2 additional reference posts without any additional “noise”, unless you count the larger child branch below. He has one post in that child branch as well. I am not going to link to the posts… that would most likely spoil the “triple rainbow”. Even more remarkable:- none of the articles were…

• Updated: Facebook & Twitter – Lucky To Be In Google At All

  Andy Beard

  11 Jan 2012 | 4:14 pm

  Facebook & Twitter have some of the worst landing pages on the web. At least if you look at it from a search engine perspective, who should assume that every visitor isn’t a member of the site they are referencing in the search engine. It should also be understood that both Facebook & Twitter are bursting at the seams with former Google engineers & execs – they can’t claim they were unaware of what Google is looking for from content owners on the web, webmaster guidelines etc. Twitter You can’t look at the Google cache and see exactly what Google sees,…

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  The Hidden Persuader

• "Hurricane Weather"

  hidden persuader

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:15 am

  Client: JeepAgency: Draftfcb+ Shimoni Finkelstein Barki

• "Last greeting card ever"

  hidden persuader

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:25 am

• "Porn is moving"

  hidden persuader

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:10 am

  MC Saatchi

• "Three Primary Colors"

  hidden persuader

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:07 am

• "Treat Yourself Better"

  hidden persuader

  31 Jan 2012 | 2:47 am

  Client: Weight WatchersAgency: Fred & Farid, Paris

• 

  Adverblog

• Audit your Friends. Visualize your relationships

  Martina

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:15 pm

  Over the past year or so I’m sure you’ve seen dozen of social media related infographic. Most of them are pretty interesting and certainly very nicely done. But probably none of those is as beautiful and, I would say, intense, as this project by Colin Pinegar. Colin “audited” his Facebook friends and visually mapped out his relationships. He asked himself questions ranging from personal (do I know this person’s phone number?) to generic (can I recognize this person by their name alone?) and assigned each of his cyber-friends a score ranging from 1-25 (those that…

• Is Pinterest The Next Hot Property In Digital Advertising?

  Michael

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:05 am

  Pinterest is the hottest thing in social content curation right now and has been billed as one of the top web properties in 2012, even though it still remains invite only. If you want an invite, leave a comment at the end of the article with your email and we’ll invite as many as we can! So what is Pinterest? It’s a visual curation site where you can create boards for the things that interest you. And those boards, probably say more about what you’re really interested in than any other site. For business, recent research has shown that Pinterest is driving more traffic than…

• Marni at H&M by Sofia Coppola

  Martina

  4 Feb 2012 | 8:54 am

  One of the great things about H&M creating special collections with high-end fashion brands is that the advertising of such co-labs is usually as beautiful as the collection itself. The latest commercial has been directed by Sofia Coppola. The video is set in Marocco and presents a 1 minute story featuring Marni at H&M collection and a fascinating Brian Ferry’s Avalon song. Check in out, the photography is beautiful.

• The notebook that became a love letter

  Martina

  4 Feb 2012 | 6:28 am

  Possibly one of the sweetest and nicest promo pieces for Valentine’s Day I’ve ever seen. And possibly a sign that the creative “war” between Field Notes and Moleskine has officially begun. After a lot of recent great videos by Moleskine, FN fights back with a lovely little artwork. The video has been created to promote the Red Blooded notebook which has been recently added to the Field Notes standard product line. The notebook that becomes a love letter: a further proof that life, love and commerce can intersect nicely. Well… maybe the description that they added…

• An annoying great work

  Martina

  3 Feb 2012 | 1:09 am

  As someone commented on Vimeo, this is an annoying great work. What happens to your brain when you get an email, an sms, a phone call, a Facebook message and two tweets all within about 5 seconds of one another? This creative re-interpretation of such event will show you. I warn you, watching and listening to this video will freak you out. Yes, it’s a pretty annoying one. But hopefully it will also make you think about how crazy our “always on” lives have become. Kudos to Chris Crutchfield for the “scary” idea and lovely execution.

• 

  Advertising Lab

• Instead Of Sales, They Seek Applause

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:03 pm

  From a book about which David Ogilvy is quoted as saying: "Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times":  "Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by the salesman's standards. Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales. It is not for general effect. It is not to keep…

• Why Facebook Will Do Search And Why Google Needs Social

  3 Feb 2012 | 1:03 am

  Mark Zuckerberg posted a picture of himself in front of his computer, and an eagle-eyed blogger noticed that his version of Facebook sports a larger-than-usual search box. An unintended leak or not, Facebook competing in search is only a matter of time just as, in retrospect, it was inevitable that Google would integrate social elements deeper into its main product. This is why. It wouldn't be a revelation to say that no large-scale ad delivery system is perfect. Reason one is that, at any given moment, only a fraction of the exposed audience is actively on the market for the benefit…

• Convert Your RSS Into Email Newsletters With Ads

  2 Feb 2012 | 9:17 pm

  This is a sponsored post. RevResponse, a company that helps bloggers make money by selling and giving away white papers and magazine subscriptions, has a new nifty tool that converts a blog's RSS feed into an email with automatically inserted promo offers. RevResponse's aptly named RSS to Email Tool is a welcome addition to the pretty small group of  RSS converters. A field once teeming with start-ups, it is now the domain of a few email newsletter providers, notably MailChimp,  and Feedburner,  a once innovative product that has become stale after its sale to Google and the…

• How To Remove Ads from YouTube Videos

  1 Feb 2012 | 9:07 am

  Simple. Except for the pre-roll.

• Future: The Pirate Bay Loads Up on Physical Goods

  24 Jan 2012 | 3:25 pm

  Not science fiction anymore, this: "Once chairs and other things become content, the prospect of rampant chair piracy turns from unimaginable into very real."  The Pirate Bay is opening a new category for the new kind of piratable stuff: "We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby…

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  The Responsible Marketing Blog

• Your name + your picture = LinkedIn ad

  Patrick Byers

  31 Jan 2012 | 10:01 am

  I received the following message over the weekend from LinkedIn friend David Quinn that you definitely need to read: I really like LinkedIn, but as a person concerned about privacy and social networks, I believe that I have to point out a change to you. Without attracting too much publicity, LinkedIn has updated their privacy conditions and has now granted itself permission to use YOUR NAME AND PICTURE in any of their advertisements. Yes: Your name + your picture = A LinkedIn ad. Some simple actions to be considered by you: 1. Place the cursor on your name at the top right corner of the…

• It worked with Darth Vader. Why not Ferris Bueller?

  Patrick Byers

  30 Jan 2012 | 1:11 am

  Volkswagen’s “The Force” Volkswagen commercial was a huge hit with nearly 50 million views since its Super Bowl release last year. Here it is, in the unlikely event you haven’t seen it: Now, a 10 second trailer featuring Matthew Broderick has the internets abuzz wondering if a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off sequel in the works. With over four million views in three days, the video has gone viral. Rumor has it there’s no sequel, but instead it’s teasing an ad for the new Honda CR-V. Some enraged Ferris fans are dropping f-bombs, threatening to key Hondas,…

• Responsible Marketing LinkedIn group is heating up

  Patrick Byers

  28 Nov 2011 | 5:51 pm

  Did you know there’s a Responsible Marketing Group on LinkedIn? Yep, it currently has an international membership of 866 members, and the conversation has recently heated up recently. Check out a great conversation we’re having about Denny’s Maple Bacon Sundae, and feel free to join us as we discuss where commerce and conscience collide and/or come together.    

• How, when and where we share on the web

  Patrick Byers

  4 Nov 2011 | 11:37 am

  Take a few minutes to review these enlightening statistics from AddThis representing sharing trends over the last five years. A  few highlights: Most active day for sharing: Wednesdays Most active time of day: 9:30 A.M. EST Most users click within the first two minutes 75% of clicks happen within the first day Interestingly, most shares are happening via good ol’ cut and paste. Who’d a thunk it?     via Mashable

• Tums commercials gone wrong

  Tan Le

  14 Sep 2011 | 5:28 pm

  In commercials, funny is money. So is sex. So when combined, sexually suggestive, funny commercials are usually bank. And the more sophomoric the humor, the more I usually like them. But these new spots for Tums antacid are just wrong — specifically these three: Inappropriately suggestive is funny when it makes sense, and is relevant to the product. But this is Tums antacid they’re selling, not condoms or 4-hour-erection Cialis. The production values for the spots are top notch, so Grey (Worldwide) obviously spent some bucks making them. But what does phallic food and orally fixated…